


Lonely But Not Alone

by hollyhock13



Series: Whumptober 2019 [23]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Dissociation, Gen, Jason Todd is a good brother, Neurodivergent Tim Drake, Overstimulation, Prompt: Secret injury, Psychological Trauma, Tim Drake Has Mental Health Issues, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake-centric, Whumptober 2019, post “A Lonely Place of Living”
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-13 17:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21189770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollyhock13/pseuds/hollyhock13
Summary: The silence was deafening, but now so is the noise.





	Lonely But Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This is a pretty good depiction of what if feels like for me to get overstimulated by a crowd, though perhaps a little more extreme. Tim’s got some issues after being locked up by himself for months on end, and this is one of them, though I am of the opinion that it’s probably just worse than it was before versus a whole new problem. (See [this](%E2%80%9C) post for the headcanon that got me started thinking this way!)
> 
> Anyway, thanks to [@Ursapharoh15](%E2%80%9C) for helping me with ideas and also starting the story. Love you 💛

The party is a cacophony of sounds, each one building over the other, each one vying for attention until he can’t take it anymore. He has to get out, NOW.

“Tim, come over here, I want you to meet—“

“Oh there you are, we’ve been looking for you—“

“—Tim—“

“—Timbo—“

“What’s wrong?”

“Are—“

“—you—“

“—alright?”

Tim blinks at them, the faces wavering in his panic. He can’t even tell who is who anymore.

“Give him some space, you freaks,” comes a loud, deep voice from the crowd. A broad shouldered man pushes his way through the crowd.

Tim can barely hear himself breathe over the ambient noise of the horde of people. Jason takes him by the shoulders and steers him away. “It’s alright, Timberly, I gotcha. Just breathe, like me. In...and out...in...and out... You’ve got this.”

Tim blinks. The breathing is helping, and so are the firm, grounding hands on his shoulders. But...this shouldn’t be happening anyway. He’s  good at parties. He’d been raised for this. Why is he so suddenly overwhelmed and overstimulated?

A hand snaps in front of his face. “You zoned out on me there, Timberlake. Keep breathing with me.”

In...and out...in...and out...

The repetition is soothing in and of itself, but the breathing helps too. He clenches and releases his hands in a secondary rhythm to help the calming effect along.

“Timmerman? You back with us?”

A sharp nod. 

“Do you need to get out of here?”

Tim opens his ears to the sounds of the party and the buzzing feeling of anxiety returns immediately. He nods again.

“I gotchu. Hold tight, we’ll let Goldie make excuses, alright?”

Another nod, and they’re pushing through the mob once again. Tim’s breath catches in his throat. The only thing continuing to ground him is the tight grip on his wrist as he is pulled past people he doesn’t care to know. 

He hears Jason talking to someone—maybe Dick?—telling him that they’re leaving,  now, no questions asked.

The other person responds, but Tim can’t hear it over the sound of squeaky shoes and chatter and live music and false laughter and clinking dishes and and and—

A light tap to the side of his face. “Tim Tam. Let’s go.”

He nods again, and let’s himself be dragged to the exit. But even here, with the sounds of the party muffled by the windows and doors, there are the sounds of the city. Ones that he missed so earnestly while he was imprisoned alone, but that now grate on his ears in the most terrible ways.

Jason doesn’t let him mourn, just pulls him toward a car and takes the keys from the valet. Tim is sure he tips the valet, but he doesn’t see it as he’s bundled into the car.

The door closes and most of the city sounds are blocked out. Tim closes his eyes and hopes for a quiet ride home. 


End file.
